A Tribute to a hero of Ravenclaw
by lizzywithfire
Summary: The aftermath of the war.  Oneshot


**I'd want the crossover to be a suprise, but that's a bit hard with the format of this site. I won't tell you here though.**

Lorelei was sitting at the kitchen bench. She had a full cup of coffee cooling in front of her, and the latest tv week open to an article on the Kardashians. She wasn't really paying attention to either of these things, her attention was on the window.

_._

_Most people in Stars Hollow didn't understand where Rory Gilmore went during semester. They knew it was a prestigious boarding school, and that it only took the best of the brightest. However whenever any of them tried to research this school, or look for applications for their own children, they found nothing. Nada; Zilch; Nothing._

_Rorys' primary school teacher had approached Lorelai one year, asking for a number to contact the school. She said they had another bright young student. Lorelai had just shaken her head, given an abrupt apology and walked away. She doubted anyone else in Stars Hollow would have what it would take to attend her daughters school. _

.

Lorelei still stared out the window, the weather was dark; gloomy. Maybe that is why it was taking so long? She took a sip of her coffee, before spitting the cold liquid out onto her magazine. She could barely believe she'd let yet another coffee go to waste. Her life was changing, and she blamed the war.

_._

_Luke never asked why Lorelei became closed off; she was glad; he wouldn't have understood. One day they'd been planning their first date, something she was both nervous and excited about. Sookie wondered why it had taken so long._

_The next day she'd arrived at the diner, her eyes sorrowful, and had told him to cancel the plans. She'd looked him in the eye as she spoke._

"_I can't do that… thing. You know that… thing we'd organized. Something's come up." She ordered a coffee, before handing him the cash. Luke found the fact that she didn't tip strange, the exchange even more so. After this she barely spoke to him, she'd come into the diner and order a coffee to go, that was the limit of their conversations._

_Lorelei was glad he never asked. He wouldn't have understood about the war her daughter was in the middle of. He didn't know who 'you know who' was; he didn't even know there was a war._

.

Lorelei rose from her seat, taking the foul liquid to the sink; rinsing away her doubts as she cleaned the mug. She set the kettle to boil before slinking back to the seat facing the window, she had to wait.

_._

_Rory had smiled with pride as she handed her mother the mug.  
>"I made it for you at school." Her smile had lifted Lorelei's heart, she hated sending Rory away, but all that hate was made up for when she saw her again at the start of summer. <em>

"_The professor said mine was the best she's ever seen a second year make, well almost." Lorelei looked at the delicate piece of porcelain. It was egg white with two yellow ducks on the side. Lorelei had loved it with all her heart; something to remember her daughter with while she was away, studying._

.

Lorelei thought she saw movement outside, a bird? She rose to open the door, only to see the rain beginning to fall. With a sigh she returned to the bench where the kettle was beginning to whistle. Maybe this time she could make use of her coffee, it may end up being a long night.

_._

_Sometimes when Babette came over to borrow some sugar, she'd note that Lorelei's mug looked different. Every time the ducks were in a different position, and if she watched it long enough they even seemed to move._

_Lorelei laughed this off, saying that when you added boiling water you got a different image. She'd then get up, empty the mug and store it in the cupboard. These were always surprise visits, normally the mug remained hidden when others visited._

.

As Lorelei gazed out the back door, she heard a thumping at the front of her house. Looking up to ensure there was no one out the back, she hurried to the front.

With trepidation she opened the door.

"Ms Gilmore."

The lady standing at Lorelei's door was old, she had her grey hair pulled back in a severe bun, and her accent was clearly Scottish. The most astonishing thing about her was her long black robe.

"Ms Gilmore" she repeated, "may I come in?"

Lorelei stood to the side, "Of course, please. May I ask who you are?"

The Scottish lady stared at Lorelei as she entered, making her way into the kitchen.

"I am Professor McGonagall, one of Rory's teachers at school." Professor McGonagall sat herself down in Lorelei's kitchen; Lorelei's seat in fact.

"Oh!" Lorelei exclaimed, "I was waiting for your owl."

Minerva glanced up at the open back door, tears hinted at the edge of her eyes. "Yes I can see that."

_._

_Lorelei had frowned when her daughter came home from school carrying an owl. Rory had told her not to jump to conclusions, and that as she was 15 she needed to have her own way to communicate. She told her mother that both of her friends Harry and Ron had owls, and Hermione even had a cat!_

_Lorelei had been quietly shocked that her daughter found a cat stranger than an owl, but she never let that slip. She'd asked about her school friends as she did every year, and Rory had complained that she couldn't see them ALL summer, 'Why can't we live in England?' she'd asked, just like every year. Lorelei had frowned, telling her that America was where they lived, and where they would stay. _

.

Professor McGonagall looked up at Lorelei, "My dear, I think it's best you take a seat."

Lorelei nearly fell onto the floor as she landed on the other seat, Rory's seat. "Is the war over?" Lorelei had heard enough about the war, Rory had sent her letters every fortnight. Had. Not for a while though, it had been three months since her last owl.

"I have-" Professor McGonagall paused, her hands clutching the thin piece of wood in her hands. Lorelei recognized it as a wand.

"I have good news on that matter. The war is over. Lord Voldemort is dead." Professor McGonagall smiled as she finished this sentence. Lorelei was overwhelmed at this news, Lord Voldemort was dead; The war was over.

"Where's Rory then?" Lorelei's eyes lit up with joy, "Did she choose to stay behind to finish the school year? Tell her that's stupid, she has to come home. I don't care what those friends of hers think."

Professor McGonagalls' smile faded. "Mr Weasley and Mr Potter are both recuperating, neither are at Hogwarts. Your daughters closest confidante, Hermione Granger, is currently residing at the school while we attempt to find her parents in Australia. However there are no current classes." Professor McGonagalls' smile was gone. This worried Lorelei.

"Then where's my daughter?" Lorelei's voice was edged with tears. Ever since yesterday something had felt wrong in her house.

"Unfortunately, during the final battle at Hogwarts, there were severe casualties on both sides; some of them students." Professor McGonagall grasped Loreleis hand, holding it in a tight grip.

_._

_When Rory had first left for her new school, she'd had tears in her eyes. She didn't want to leave her mother, nor Lane, or Luke. She'd been adamant that she could learn everything in Stars Hollow, that no school in Scotland would be better. When she'd finally realized she could learn spells, the tears had dried. She'd hugged her mother before grasping hands with the kind pudgy woman, Professor Sprout, waving to her mother as they'd both disappeared in a blink of an eye. Professor Sprout had said they were using a Portkey; a way to easily travel between countries._

.

"Where. Is. My. Daughter?" Lorelei refused to listen to what Professor McGonagall had said.

"I am so very sorry Ms Gilmore, but it seems that during the final battle, your daughter was hit with a curse." Professor McGonagall tears were flowing freely now. "She was one of our best students."

Lorelei didn't hear her, she was just staring at the bedroom door opposite her. Her daughters empty room.

_._

_Lorelei was fretting about the lack of an owl from Rory. She was sitting in her daughters room when she'd heard a bang at the back door. Jumping from the small bed she'd rushed to the back door, hoping to find her daughters owl, Proust. Instead she saw an empty back yard, filled with nothing but browning snow flakes. She'd returned to the bedroom, but something was different. Nothing physical had changed, it was something within her that was different. There was no essence of Rory in the shelves, no feeling that any minute she'd walk through the door. Lorelei had sunk to the bed and cried. That was when she'd first known, though not when she'd first realized._

.

The realization was now.

"No, No- Not Rory. No!" Lorelei could hear this voice, it was a very familiar voice. However it wasn't Professor McGonagalls', it took her a moment to realize it was hers.

"I'm so very sorry Ms Gilmore." Professor McGonagall waved her wand, making two steaming cups of tea appear.

Lorelei just gazed at her, sunk in her depression. Slowly, as the waves of realization had sunk in, she turned to Professor McGonagall. "Why?"

"We believe that Lord Voldemort killed her himself. It was final torture to Mr. Harry Potter, before he intended on killing the boy. Her life was not wasted Ms Gilmore."

Lorelei sullenly stared at Professor McGonagall, "What do you mean not wasted? She's dead, at 17! Dead!"

Professor McGonagall kept a tight reign on her emotions, "Your daughter saved all of Ravenclaw, she lead them out of the castle herself. She is being rewarded with an order of Merlin, first class no less."

Lorelei sighed. Not with relief, and never from happiness. She didn't think she would ever be happy again.

"Thank you." Her voice broke as she spoke hard words. "Thank you for bringing the news yourself." The tears were pouring from her eyes.

Professor McGonagall merely gave a tight lipped smile, before disapparating. Leaving the grieving mother alone with her tears.

.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading. Please review.<strong>

**As I was writing this I had an idea for a sequel. I doubt it will ever happen, but there's a chance. I won't tell you what it's about though.  
><strong>


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